The delivery of laptops to students under the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) COVID-19 relief scheme has once again hit a snag and the devices will only be available next year.
Higher education, science and innovation minister Dr Blade Nzimande announced the further delay yesterday, apologising to the intended recipients, saying the holdup is regrettable.
“Given that the procurement process has been concluded much later than originally planned, the laptops will now be distributed in the new academic year, which will now also assist us to deal with severe financial challenges faced by NSFAS,” he said.
The NSFAS tender to supply laptops to students has been under scrutiny for some months after allegations of impropriety emerged in Parliament, which led to the cancellation of the initial bid.
A new tender was re-issued, causing further delays in supplying the laptops, which, once delivered, will benefit 430 000 students registered at 26 universities and 300 000 students at 50 TVET colleges across the country. A total of 730 000 laptops will be procured.
The tender was finally awarded to five firms at the beginning of this month from a pool of 140 bids.
The five – Pinnacle, CEOS Technologies, MLO Distinctive Solutions, ANG Group and East Side Group – accepted the award and NSFAS is in the process of completing the contractual arrangements with the service providers.
Speaking during a media briefing on Thursday, Nzimande, said: “I am happy to announce that the NSFAS administrator subsequently approved the tender award on 2 November 2020 to five bidders, which will work with NSFAS and our institutions in the delivery of laptops to our students.”
The minister noted NSFAS is in the process of completing the contractual arrangements with all successful service providers, following which the details of the final mutually agreed guidelines will be communicated with all institutions.
“This will then lead to institutions commencing with the procurement of laptops required by the NSFAS funded students.”
He thanked the scheme for finalising this process and congratulated all the companies that were appointed, while expressing remorse about the delay to supply the laptops.
“I want to assure the students that it was not intended, but it was very important to ensure that the procurement processes were followed strictly.”
Besides the Parliament red flag regarding the procurement process, the awarding of the tender also irked some in the electronics manufacturing sector.
The National Association of Manufacturers in Electronic Components (NAMEC) objected to the awarding of the laptops tender, saying the process was flawed and lacked transparency.
NAMEC believes the award is a slap in the face for emerging black-owned companies, saying the process denied them an opportunity to participate in a project that would have “altered their economic realities” in the electronics industry.
In a strongly worded letter to NSFAS, Namec said: “The process doesn’t even start to address the economic imbalances in our country and to remedy the continued fronting perpetuated by white-owned companies in order to retain the economic status quo.
“It is trite that our empowerment policies seek to empower as broad a base of entrepreneurs as possible, and this thin selection seems to be in direct opposition with these prescripts.
“How is the selection of these five companies broad-based empowerment, and what are the possibilities that these few entities will be able produce and deliver 730 000 [laptops] for both TVET and universities, without putting into jeopardy the plan of ensuring learning will be seamlessly delivered in the 2021 academic year?”
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